Dean A. Del Mastro (born August 16, 1970) is a former Canadian politician. He represented Peterborough in the House of Commons of Canada as a member of the Conservative Party from January 23, 2006 until November 5, 2014. After being charged by Elections Canada with falsifying election documents and knowingly exceeding the Election spending limit, he resigned from the Conservative caucus.[3] Del Mastro has been convicted on three counts of breaking the Elections Act, including exceeding the election spending limit, exceeding his personal donation limit, and falsifying documents. Del Mastro is currently awaiting sentencing. Each count carries a potential penalty of up to a year in prison and/or a fine of up to $2,000. He previously served as the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.[4]

Del Mastro won the Conservative nomination for Peterborough over six other contenders in May 2005, defeating former party nominee James Jackson by only eight votes on the final ballot.[8] He was elected in the 2006 federal election, narrowly defeating his Liberal Party opponent. The Conservatives won a minority government in this election, and Del Mastro entered parliament as a backbench supporter of Stephen Harper's administration. He was re-elected with an increased majority in the 2008 election, as the Harper government increased its seat total but fell short of a majority.

He was appointed as parliamentary secretary to the minister of Canadian Heritage on November 7, 2008.[9] According to his website, he was also the parliamentary secretary to the minister of Sport.[10] He was the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.[4]

After the 2006 election, Harper charged Del Mastro with coordinating the Conservative Party's outreach to Lebanese Canadian voters.[11] Del Mastro planned to participate in a parliamentary delegation to the Middle East organized by the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations in August 2006, during the period of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. He withdrew from the trip at the last minute, and there are conflicting reports as to the reasons for this decision.[12] Some charge that the Prime Minister's Office pressured him not to participate in a trip that would challenge the government's pro-Israel line, although Del Mastro denied this and cited security concerns.[13]

In 2007, Del Mastro lobbied the Harper government to reopen a passenger train service link from Peterborough to Toronto that was cut by Via Rail seventeen years earlier. He estimated that the track upgrades would cost $150 million and that the service would be used by nine hundred people daily.[16] In February 2008, Finance MinisterJim Flaherty announced that his government would reopen the line. Although locally popular, this plan was widely criticized as impractical, improperly planned, and designed for political gain. Some editorials noted that the line would travel through several Conservative ridings, including Flaherty's own.[17] A 2010 study commissioned by the provincial and federal governments estimated that capital costs for the project would run between $541 million and $1.5 billion. Del Mastro criticized these figures and accused the study's creators of bias, while acknowledging that the project would probably not move forward if assessed solely on the basis of that one report.[18] In 2011, Del Mastro promised that the first passenger train would leave Peterborough on July 1, 2014.[19]

Del Mastro has also led a non-partisan House of Commons Rail Caucus and has lobbied for a high-speed link connecting Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.[20]

Del Mastro was charged as being responsible for the Conservative response to the Robocall scandal.[23] He has called the robocall scandal "baseless smears."[24] He has asked Elections Canada if it had leaked details around the robocalls. Elections Canada replied such an accusation was smearing Elections Canada by indicating that details of the robocall scandal were purposefully leaked.[25]

During the Canadian federal election, 2011, in Dean Del Mastro's Peterborough riding, robocalls were made under the name "Jeff", and originated from Jeff Westlake, the Conservative campaign manager in the riding. Voter confusion resulted, as the Liberal MPP was also named Jeff, and issued a statement to clarify he was not involved.[26][27]

During the election, Dean Del Mastro's campaign employed the firm, Campaign Research, paying them $22,000. This firm has been associated with a seminar promoting voter suppression tactics, tactics borrowed from the U.S. Republican Party. The founding members of Campaign Research organized a seminar in co-ordination with the Manning Centre. The tactics taught at this seminar were later used in the 2011 Canadian federal election to illegally dissuade voters from voting. These tactics were also used by Campaign Research in Irwin Cotler's riding falesly claiming that Cotler was going to resign.[28]

It was revealed in June 2012 that Elections Canada was investigating Del Mastro for overspending during the 2008 elections. The investigation surrounds a payment of $21,000 made by a personal cheque to Ottawa-based polling firm Hollinshed Research Group for which Del Mastro was not reimbursed, exceeding his personal spending limit of $5,000. Del Mastro has insisted he has not broken any election law and claimed that the $21,000 cheque was for a riding-mapping software called GeoVote that Holienshed intended to launch, and not for telephone calls to constituents during the campaign.[25][29][30] Del Mastro has refused to meet with Elections Canada officials. The NDP has called for the matter to be handled by the Director of Public Prosecution, and RCMP Commercial Crimes Unit.[31]

In June 2013, Del Mastro, speaking in Parliament and protected from defamation law, accused Frank Hall, a witness in the Elections Canada investigation, of having "concerning details" in his background that required investigation. Subsequently Frank Hall wrote to Andrew Scheer, Speaker of the House of Commons complaining Del Mastro “gratuitously slandered” him. Hall wrote "I am attempting to comply with my legal duties, as a law-abiding Canadian, Mr. Del Mastro’s statements to you appear to be aimed at dissuading me from doing so." Hall asked Scheer for protection from further verbal attacks from Del Mastro "so that I, and other witnesses can continue to carry out our legal duty to comply with subpoenas and to cooperate with public investigations of national importance, without fear of persecution or reprisal." Hall further requests that Scheer order Del Mastro to apologize and withdraw his remarks.[32]

Del Mastro was formally charged by Elections Canada with four breaches of the Elections Canada Act on September 26, 2013. The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail with a $5,000 fine.[33]

Dean Del Mastro's cousin, David Del Mastro, is also under investigation by Elections Canada for violations of elections spending rules. David Del Mastro is alleged to have created a scheme whereby 22 of his employees, working for Deltro Electric, made donations of $1,000 to Dean Del Mastro's campaign and the Peterborough Conservative Riding association in exchange for a reimbursement of $1,050.[34]

On October 31, 2014, Justice Lisa Cameron of the Ontario Court of Justice found Del Mastro guilty of violating the Canada Elections Act by overspending his elections limit and attempting to cover up the violation.[35][36][37] As a result of the convictions, Del Mastro resigned in a speech to the House of Commons on November 5, 2014.[38][39][40] Del Mastro was scheduled to be sentenced on January 27, 2015.[41][42] During the sentencing hearing held on January 27, 2015, Dean Del Mastro's new lawyer argued that the judge should set aside the previous election overspending guilty verdicts.[43] On February 18, 2015, Justice Cameron dismissed Del Mastro's application for a mistrial.[44][45] He is now scheduled to be sentenced on February 19, 2015.[46][47][48]

At a hearing on 23 Feb 2015, prosecution lawyer Tom Lemon stated that Del Mastro’s activities “were planned and deliberate and involved a high degree of sophistication”. He asked for a sentence of at least nine to twelve months. “Mr. Del Mastro does not seem to get the consequences of his actions — or the seriousness of those actions.” [49]

Del Mastro was a Conservative representative on the House of Commons Ethics Committee in 2007 and took part in the committee's work on the controversial business dealings between Karlheinz Schreiber and Brian Mulroney.[50]

In 2009, he spoke against a proposal that would have allowed Canada's broadcasters to bill cable and satellite companies for transmitting their signals.[51]

In 2012, Del Mastro claimed in the House of Commons that the Liberal Party used an American telemarketing firm during the 2011 federal election when it was in fact a Canadian company. It was later revealed that his own campaign was one of 14 conservative campaigns to enlist the services of Ohio based, Front Porch Strategies[52] Del Mastro maintains that none of these activities are tied to the so-called "Robocalls" controversy.

In 2012, veteran CBC parliamentary reporter Kady O'Malley wrote a scathing article accusing Del Mastro of going "in camera" too often thereby contradicting his own party policy of openness and transparency.[53]

While addressing criticism of the digital locks provision within proposed copyright legislation under Bill C-11 (formerly C-32, and C-61 and C-60 before that), Del Mastro compared format-shifting to the act of buying socks from a retailer, only to return later and take a pair of shoes without paying.[54]

On October 28, 2014, in a Facebook posting, he made allegations of sexual blackmail against an unnamed member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.[55]

^The other contenders were Aaron Anderson, Darrin Langen, Paul Peterson, Alan Wilson, and Bill Hampton. See Vivian Song, "Conservatives choose political newcomer locally: 'Family man, successful entrepreneur'," Peterborough Examiner, 16 May 2005, A1. Anderson was thirty-one years old and on the right-wing of the party, and said that he ran to advance the role of Christians in politics. He was born in Peterborough but later moved to Toronto. See Rachel Punch, "Field growing for those seeking Conservative nomination in riding," Peterborough Examiner, 29 April 2005, A3. Alan Wilson has served as chair of the Peterborough Lakefield Community Police Services Board and described himself in 2005 as a centrist. See Mike Lacey, "Alan Wilson makes it five after nomination," Peterborough This Week, 29 April 2005, p .3; Rachel Punch, "Another Tory candidate steps up," Peterborough Examiner, 30 April 2005, B1. Bill Hampton was a lawyer in the Peterborough area. He was forty-three years old, described himself as "middle of the road," and favoured human rights and public health care. See "Lawyer seeks Conservative nomination," Peterborough This Week, 27 April 2005, p. 2; Elizabeth Bower, "Four-way race for nomination," Peterborough Examiner, 27 April 2005, B1.

^"Flaherty's folly" [editorial], Toronto Star, 29 February 2008, A4; "This is no way to run a railroad" [editorial], Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 1 March 2008, A14; "Flaherty's wild ride" [editorial], Globe and Mail, 3 March 2008, A12. A confidential report by the provincial government, drafted in 2006 and made available after the controversy arose, listed the Peterborough-Toronto link in the lowest priority range for transport improvement in the Greater Toronto Area. See Patricia Best, "Flaherty's train gets derailed," Globe and Mail, 5 March 2008, B2.